People have long had a need to have a source of outdoor lighting on their properties. Such lighting is particularly useful to home and business owners so that they can conduct outdoor activates at night. Outdoor lighting is also used to highlight the architectural features of buildings and to illuminate plants and trees. Of course, another purpose of outdoor lighting is to deter criminal activity.
For these reasons people frequently attach lighting fixtures to trees because they are so common and because they are very sturdy. One common way people attach lighting fixtures to trees is to wrap a belt or cable around the trunk (or branch) of the tree and then attach the light fixture to the belt or cable. Of course, the problem with this is that as the tree grows it will grow around the cable. The use of cables and belts has resulted in the death or damage to many trees when the property owner fails to adjust the cable every few years. Unfortunately, many property owners do not adjust the belts in a timely manner because they forget to do so, and because the cable is too high in the tree and they simply do not have the means to reach the cable.
Other devices for mounting light fixtures to trees are also used. For example, people use a plurality of screws to mount plates to the tree in order to support the lighting device. However, the tree quickly grows into the device. So, the property owner must make adjustments to the device every few years, and this is both time consuming and dangerous if the device is mounted high in a tree. Typically the property owner completely fails to adjust the device and the device literally ends up embedding in the tree. This can result in a significant injury to the tree in that the tree may rot in the vicinity of the device. In addition, these devices call for two hands to install. This presents a danger if the person installing/adjusting the device is high in the tree, as he or she has no free hands to hold onto the tree with in the event he or she slips. Indeed, many people have fallen from trees when using such devices.
Thus, there is a need for a device that allows lighting fixtures to be attached to a tree trunk in a quick and efficient manner, and does not call for the use of two hands and is inexpensive to manufacture.